Insights into the Sign Virgo

Donna says, “Auntie Moon is one of my favorite blogs—one of the few I subscribe to. I enjoy her wise, homey, and well-grounded insights into the Moon and the 12 signs. CJ is also a very funny and down-to-earth blogger pal of mine. Her insightful posts about the sign Virgo have been especially good, and so I asked her if I could do a digest of several of them in one post as a way to celebrate that sign. The reprinted sections below will give you a taste of her work, and you can click on the links to see the whole post if you want more.”

In the tarot, The Hermit is frequently associated with the zodiac sign of Virgo. He is said to be a teacher, a sage. Having reached the summit, he holds his lamp for all travelers who may see it and follow its guiding light. He doesn’t look like a talker to me, so once you reach his summit, it’s doubtful he’ll start filling you in on his philosophy.

Maybe he’ll offer a cup of soup, something simple and nourishing. A slice of bread perhaps, delicately carved from the one perfect loaf he baked that morning. But chatter? Probably not. His eventual revelation? He is there simply to serve, and therefore his secret is revealed. You are both the seeker and the sought, the destination and the way. He learns from you.

If you could have a conversation with any Virgo, living or historical, who would it be? What about them would make you want to seek their guidance? Is there a skill you would like to learn from that person, a dedication to service, or intense focus on minutiae that just might change the world? AstroDataBank’s Birthdata Collection of Notables has a long list of noted Virgos, as does Astrotheme, with their charts and many biographies to serve as notes. It’s hard to choose, but why not take a moment to find a temporary Guru to guide you through the period following this Virgo New Moon. (See the rest of the post here: Wanted: Guru ~ All Virgos Please Apply ).

The celestial buzz is that Virgo is the critic of the zodiac. It’s because of that discerning eye, that Mercurial analysis, that earthy, practical logic. My first profession was in the theatre where criticism was a regular part of the artistic life. Ego had to be left in the wings while critical words poured forth from the director (and sometimes with asides from the cast and crew). I may have felt that I just gave an award winning performance only to hear the director say, “What was that?!” Rejection was a part of daily life and I had to develop a tough skin in order to stop taking everything personally and hit the pavement for the next round of auditions.

This type of criticism was almost always constructive, rarely personal. The director’s goal was to make me look as good as possible while improving the overall production. I learned something about the art of performance and when “The Review” came out, I usually fared well.

Learning to take constructive criticism isn’t always easy, but there’s a payoff ~ improvement of character or skill. Suffering at the hands of constant negative criticism is a whole other story. Egos take quite a beating and self-esteem suffers. Nothing is gained. These types of “criticisms” are nothing but verbal attacks and we can choose to accept or refuse them. (See the rest of the post here: Virgo ~ Criticism and the Pain of Rejection ).

Virgo rules the sixth House, the “House of Servants.” It’s hard for a modern student of astrology to connect with that descriptive phase. Perhaps there was a day when astrology was available only to the ruling class, when a phrase such as “house of servants” connoted all one’s employees or slaves, but that’s no longer true about astrology. It’s available to the masses in our western world, even those in the servant class. Who makes up the servant class? You. The question is, who do you serve? Or perhaps the better question is, what do you serve?

The sixth is a vocational house, giving us clues about our job, our everyday routine. In that regard, the sixth is sometimes given the name, “House of Service,” and it’s sign might shed some light on the type of service you provide as a servant and planets in the sixth will bring nuance to the equation. The question remains, who or what do you serve?

Not many people aspire to the mundane, and the sixth poses the threat of being incredibly mundane. Arise to the alarm clock, mark the morning routine, off to work, get through the day, squirm through the traffic home, search for a little way to numb the mind, off to bed, arise to the alarm, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…ad infinitum. What are we? A bunch of wind up toys programmed to perform a little routine and then shut down? How do we get ourselves out of this mess? (See the rest of the post here: Virgo ~ You’ve Got to Serve Somebody)

When it comes to food, the stereotypical description of Virgos is that they’re all super-conscious health food nuts, but are they really? I haven’t seen that play out.

I’ve known one Virgo for half my life now and he is definitely NOT into health food. I would go so far as to say that when it comes to health food, he is an Anti-Virgo, and used to call it “rocks and dirt food.” What he is, is picky with an uncanny ability to say NO to food. (A completely foreign concept to me, unfortunately.) According to his mom, he’s been this way since he was a child. She talks about taking him to the doctor when he was just a little child because he was so skinny and refused to eat.

My other prime Virgo example is my niece, who decided when she was barely into her teens that she was a vegetarian and proclaimed that she would not eat “anything that had a mother.” It was not a health issue for her; it was a moral issue.

She is now twenty-plus years into her vegetarian lifestyle, all the while cooking up meat dishes for her husband. She is completely non-judgmental, but she made a choice early in her life and has stuck with it. It is her diet of choice.

These two examples pinpoint Virgo’s natural inclination toward food awareness which began when both were very young. Neither one is particularly “health-conscious” when it comes to their food, but they both have very clear boundaries when it comes to saying “no.” This may or may not be true of the Virgos in your life. Of course, there are many, many Virgos who are extremely conscious of a healthy diet, just as there are Aries, Geminis, Capricorns, and all the other signs. (See the rest of the post here: Virgo ~ I’ll Just Pick)

Note: Each month Auntie Moon has a series of articles like these on the current zodiac sign, and if you go to her blog, you’ll see her post on the current New Moon. With each New Moon, she posts a list of things to do during that month. Her site also contains pages on Cooking with Astrology and Gardening by the Moon.

What the Author Says about Herself: “My interest in astrology grew out my exposure to the tarot. In 1991 my dear friend, Barbara, gave me a deck of tarot cards even though I kept saying, “no, no, no!” I’d always loved symbols and these cards hooked me in no time. All those numbers on the cards and references to signs and planets sent me on a quest to learn as much as I could about astrology and numerology. For someone who loves symbols, it was easy to see how the three systems work together. If you’re interested in numerology or tarot, please take a look at my blog, Year~Seer. I also have a page at selfgrowth.com where you can find some articles on numerology.

Art Credits: The vegan buttons were found on the web, and I swear no animals were harmed in making them. The Virgo constellation was found at Wikimedia Commons and is in the public domain. The hermit card came from Auntie Moon.